


Coming Clean (Connective Tissue I)

by NotALemon



Series: A Two-Man, One-Angel Operation (Supernatural Rewritten) [2]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bitchy Dean Winchester, Established Gabriel/Sam Winchester, Gabriel (Supernatural) is Loki, Jess and Luis Are Such Good Friends, M/M, Post-Episode: s01e01 Pilot, Stanford Era (Supernatural), The Secret Comes Out, it's just mentioned, jess deserved better
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-03
Updated: 2020-03-03
Packaged: 2021-02-27 18:28:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,997
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22990243
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NotALemon/pseuds/NotALemon
Summary: Jess answers the door in a cropped Smurfs shirt and sweatpants, hair pulled back. She’d probably been studying, since she’s way too awake to have just been woken up. Sam has half a mind to tease her about how she should be asleep at this hour, but this isn't the time for that. “Sam? Gabe? Who’s this? What’s… going on?”Sam rubs the back of his neck. “This is my brother, Dean. Um, something happened. Can we come in?”
Relationships: Gabriel/Sam Winchester
Series: A Two-Man, One-Angel Operation (Supernatural Rewritten) [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1643980
Comments: 2
Kudos: 177





	Coming Clean (Connective Tissue I)

Sam knocks on the door to Jess’ apartment, Gabriel holding his hand, Dean huffing behind them. 

Jess answers the door in a cropped Smurfs shirt and sweatpants, hair pulled back. She’d probably been studying, since she’s way too awake to have just been woken up. Sam has half a mind to tease her about how she should be asleep at this hour, but... “Sam? Gabe? Who’s this? What’s… going on?”

Sam rubs the back of his neck. “This is my brother, Dean. Um, something happened. Can we come in?” He gives her an apologetic look.

Jess looks from Sam and Gabriel to Dean, considering the situation for a moment. “Yeah. Yeah, come in.” She moves aside to allow them in.

Her apartment is delightfully homey, in that way that college apartments can sometimes be. Delightfully lived-in, covered in pictures of her friends printed in Walgreens from cheap disposable cameras and finds from secondhand stores to make it feel more like a home than just a student's apartment.

“Hi,” Dean says, with a smile. He’s far too happy for someone who never wanted to go over and talk to Sam’s friends in the first place. “You know, I love the Smurfs.”

“So _this_ is your brother?” Jess asks, looking at Dean almost judgmentally. 

“Yeah. Dean, this is, uh, Jess.” Sam looks at Dean, giving him a _don’t even try it_ look. Dean rolls his eyes, but has the decency not to say anything more. “Um, I asked Luis to come over. Sorry. I just-- something really big just happened.” Sam rubs the back of his neck again. Gabriel squeezes his hand.

“Oh God, did something--?” Jess looks at the two of them, trying to understand what must have happened that was important enough to warrant _Sam Winchester_ coming to her door with an apologetic look. The last time this had happened, he’d apologized for disturbing her, then told her that he and Gabriel got into the biggest fight of their relationship. The time before that, it was because he thought he wasn’t good enough for Stanford; the time before that was on his brother’s birthday, when he’d explained to her that his family was _dysfunctional, and then some_.

“It was…” Sam looks at Gabriel. Gabriel just shakes his head. Jess’ heart drops. 

Luis bursts through the door, in a Stanford hoodie and sweats as well. He was probably studying, too. Advancing his life. Sam cringes at that. “Damn, this better be good, if you called me in the middle of the night,” he says, almost boisterous, then stops when he sees Dean, forehead creasing with curiosity. “Who’s he?”

“I’d ask the same for you, man,” Dean says, irritable. He gives Luis a once-over, not unlike the one he gave Jess earlier. “ _You guys_ hang with my geek brother?”

“Luis. Hi,” Sam says. “This’s my brother Dean.” He looks at Luis and Jess, then rubs the back of his neck some more. “So, something happened, and, um, it’s pretty serious.”

“I’ve heard.” Jess crosses her arms, sitting on her couch. Luis takes a place next to her. “So tell us,” she says. She doesn’t sound annoyed, just concerned. All the possibilities play in her mind.

Sam breathes in. “My dad’s gone missing,” he begins.

“The dad that hasn’t talked to you in four years?” Jess asks.

Sam glances at Dean. “Yeah,” he says. He chooses his words carefully, trying not to reveal too much about himself. “He was on a hunting trip, and he’s been gone for a few weeks.”

“You don’t think he, like--?” Luis asks, conspiratorially. Luis has always had a penchant for drama.

“No. He wouldn’t-- no.” Sam tucks his hand in his hoodie pockets, the other still holding Gabriel’s tightly. “But… I went away for the weekend, to try finding him, and…” he sighs, looking at Gabriel.

“Something attacked me,” Gabriel says, taking that as a _yes, and_ moment.

Jess’ forehead crinkles with thought. “Some _thing_?” she asks, bright as ever.

“It _is_ Halloween,” Luis jokes, eyes comedically wide. “Maybe it was a ghost or demon or something.”

Sam takes in a breath. That’s an opening. “Yeah. Yeah, it was a demon.”

“Horns and all?” Luis asks, leaning back against the couch and stifling a smile like he’s convinced it’s a late-night Halloween joke, a couple days late. From Gabriel, it makes sense, but not from Sam. Maybe Gabriel’s rubbed off on him more than they thought.

“Listen,” Dean says, clipped and annoyed. He’d complained about having to drive over to see Sam’s friends, wanting to get on the road as soon as possible. You can say many, many things about Dean Winchester (and many people _have_ ), but you can’t really call him anything close to _patient_. “The world’s--”

“Let me tell them,” Sam interrupts. He keeps his voice soft and gentle, the way he does when he talks to kids. “You know all those things you were scared of when you were younger? Monsters in the closet? Werewolves? Vampires?” he asks. Sam takes in a breath, mostly to steady himself, because he doesn’t want to admit his past to his friends, scared they would abandon him because of it. “They’re real.”

Jess raises her eyebrows, then furrows them, forehead crinkling with concern. “Are you okay?” she asks.

“Yes, I’m fine, it’s--”

“I told you they weren’t gonna get it,” Dean says. “Why bother? They’re--”

Gabriel rolls his eyes and snaps his fingers, conjuring up a wooden chair. “Sit and shut up,” he hisses.

Luis stares at Dean, then at Gabriel, then at Jess, eyes wide and horrified. “Tell me you just saw that, too,” he asks, voice full of panic.

Jess stares at Gabriel, blinking a couple times. 

Gabriel spreads his shadowy wings out behind him, spreading on the plain-colored walls of Jess’ apartment. “You have _no clue_ how much it sucks to hide everything for so long. Damn, even when I was Loki, I still got to conjure up things. Living as a mortal _sucks_.” He turns to Sam. “How do you do it?”

“Gabe, not the time,” he says.

“Sam,” Jess says, plain and flat, “what the hell is this?”

“Gabriel’s an angel,” Sam says, cringing at the absurdity. “Um--”

“Archangel, actually,” Gabriel corrects, flippant.

Luis shakes his head at them. “There’s no way this is real,” he says. “I must’ve fallen asleep watching _Buffy_ again.”

“Quality show, but no,” Gabriel comments. “Hi. Welcome to the real world, kiddo.”

“What is happening here?” Jess asks, far too calm for everything she’s just witnessed. But that’s Jess.

“I’m sorry we didn’t tell you sooner,” Sam says, looking to Gabriel. “It’s just that… we didn’t think you’d believe us.”

“If angels are real-- which I’m not 100% agreeing to, by the way--, then does that mean that, like… _everything’s_ real?” Luis asks. He looks at Dean, too, confused. “Like, the whole shebang? Demons and ghosts and all that?”

“More than you’ve ever imagined,” Sam says, voice having the same thinness as an old t-shirt.

Jess watches Sam carefully, reading him. “You’re serious,” she says, almost surprised.

“I wouldn’t lie about this,” Sam says.

“Wait, how do _you_ know?” Luis asks Sam.

Sam sighs, looking at his brother. “Because Dean and I-- we grew up hunting these creatures.”

“Grew up hunting-- your dad,” Jess says, sitting up straighter. Everything’s just begun to make sense. _Beyond dysfunctional_ , Sam had said. _I was raised like a warrior_. “Oh.”

"We’re worried about him," Sam says. "And-- the same thing that killed my mom tried killing Gabriel. That's what he's been hunting my entire life."

Jess and Luis look at each other.

"You're not just _leaving_ are you?" Jess asks. “Your interview--”

"It'll just be for the semester. Just until we find my dad,” Sam promises.

Luis looks around the room, from Sam and Gabriel to Dean. "Is there, like, anything we can do?" It’s about the most serious Sam’s seen Luis ever look. This, and the first round of finals he’d known Luis, where Luis had gone 36 hours without sleeping and immediately collapsed after the last one finished. 

"Not really," Sam says. "I just… thought you deserved to know. Because you're my friends."

"Sam, I'm flattered, but…" Jess gives him a specific, pointed look, one that speaks more than words could ever do.

"Sorry, Jess. We just gotta look for 'em, y'know? I mean, _my_ family's been tryin' to find my daddy since… well, too far back for me to wanna count. I'm sure finding good ol' Johnny Winchester'll be a _breeze_ compared to that shitshow." Gabriel folds the shadows of his wings behind his back once more.

“Are you sure about this?” Jess asks.

Sam looks at her. In another life, maybe, one where he’d never met Gabriel, he could imagine that they could have dated. Jess has always been a wonderful person, putting up with no shit, concerned about everyone’s well-being, always willing to celebrate the little victories with a kind word and small smile. “Yes,” he says.

“So… where are you going? Like, where next?” Luis asks.

Sam looks at Gabriel, then at Dean. “That’s… sort of--”

“Dad left us some coordinates,” Dean says, in his impatient _let’s get a move-on_ tone. Sam sighs.

“I’ll email,” he promises Jess and Luis.

“And you’re sure you’ll be safe?” Jess asks, surprisingly maternal.

“Don’t worry so much about him. He’s got an angel.” Gabriel beams at Sam. Sam has the presence of mind to look a little bashful at that.

“Where do I get one of those?” Luis asks.

“Try the library, kiddo,” Gabriel says. He leans against Sam’s side. 

Dean rolls his eyes. “You done with your Tupperware party yet? ‘Cuz we gotta get goin’ sometime in the next year.”

Sam glares at his brother.

Jess stands from the couch and gives Sam a hug. “I meant it,” she says. “Stay safe.” Then she hugs Gabriel, too. “Don’t let him die.”

“Trust me, that’s the _priority_ ,” Gabriel says.

“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do, man,” Luis tells Sam with a grin.

Sam shakes his head and pulls Luis in for a hug, too. “Yeah, miss you too, man.” He claps Luis on the back. 

Dean stands from the chair and makes his way over to the rest of the group.

Jess looks at him, gaze intense. There’s a sort of warning in her eyes. Luis cocks his head to the side a little at Dean.

“Jeez, you know how to make a guy feel real welcome,” Dean mutters. “Sammy, you ready?”

“It’s Sam,” Sam corrects.

“I’m takin’ that as a ‘yes’. C’mon.” Dean walks to the door, turning around when he’s at the door. “Thanks for lookin’ after my nerd brother.”

“You were too busy to,” Jess says, cutting.

Luis crosses his arms.

Sam smiles and shakes his head. “Take care.”

“We’ll stop by sometime. Show you the decapitated heads of our kills, Medusa-style.” Gabriel looks off into the distance. “Athena. What a lady.”

Luis opens his mouth, likely to ask all sorts of questions, but Sam gently leads Gabriel to the door and through it, shutting it behind him.

“So, we good, or do you have thirty _more_ of your friends you’d like to spill our dirty family secret to?” Dean asks, irritated. He stalks over to the Impala.

“I don’t know why you’re so mad about this,” Sam argues back, sitting shotgun, though he considers getting in the back with Gabriel, just so he doesn’t have to deal with Dean. “Would you rather I drop off the face of the Earth and they file a missing person’s report?”

“You can’t just go around tellin’ people what we do for a living!”

“They’re my _friends_ , Dean. They deserve to know.” Sam crosses his arm. “They’ve cared more about me in the last four years than _you_ have.”

Dean glares at Sam, but says nothing, driving away from outside of Jess’ apartment. The drive from Stanford is stiflingly quiet, even with the radio playing loudly.

**Author's Note:**

> Screw it. Here's Sam telling his Stanford friends what's actually happening with his life. We deserve more Jess and Luis content in our lives, and that's the tea. 
> 
> I have ideas for some more "connective tissue" stories, because honestly, I like that sort of behind-the scenes action that happens between episodes. Also, why the heck not?


End file.
